The Black-Poll Warbler {Dendrolca striata) 

 By F. E. L. Beal 



Length : About Sj4 inches. 



Range : Eastern North America, west to the Rocky Mountains, north to 

 Greenland, the Barren Grounds, and Alaska, breeding from northern New Eng- 

 land and the Catskills northward. 



Black-polls bring up the rear of the warbler host. And when one has seen 

 them the reason of their tardiness becomes apparent. 



Whereas most warblers are restless, impatient, fussy, black-polls are delib- 

 erate, decorous, self-contained. They are in no hurry ; they have no trains to 

 catch or previously appointed trysts to keep. There is added reason, too, for 

 their leisurely passage, in that their summer camps are pitched far north where 

 spring is tardy also. 



In spring the birds seldom arrive before the 15th of May and oftener it is 

 nearer the 20th. The males greatly exceed the females in number, so that one 

 really wonders when the females pass. It is possible that they do not light largely 

 until Lake Erie is traversed, since the species is reckoned rare in the southern 

 part of the state, and only tolerably common in the vicinity of Columbus. For 

 all the birds appear so slow the northern movement is rather rapid, and only an 

 occasional straggler is found after the 25th of May. 



It is always with a feeling of sadness that the bird-man views the arrival 

 of these birds which mark practically the close of the warbler season. It has 

 been too short, that period of bursting buds and twinkling wings ; but now the 

 leaves are all unfolded, the fairy visitants have stolen away one by one — and 

 here comes black-poll. To be sure his presence befits the season; the bustle of 

 awakening life over, his monotonous droning chimes in accurately with the 

 murmur of bees' wings, and lies softly upon the pulsing tribute of heated air 

 by which the sounds are alike borne heavenward ; but somehow we still rebels 

 youth was all too short ! 



The warblers are lost to view now if they remain in the tree-tops, but a foggy 

 morning, or some reason less apparent, will sometimes bring them down to feed 

 in the shrubbery. At such times they are quite approachable and one may see 

 how — or at least ivhen — they produce that fairy creaking which they call a song. 

 This consists of a series of exactly similar notes uttered rapidly, but in a beautiful 

 musical swell. Many syllables will satisfy the ear, but Mr. Langille has perhaps 

 hit it off the best when he says, "tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree, tree." 



The black-polls swarm through our state during the fall migrations when they 

 may be observed from the last week in August well into October. It is not prob- 

 able, however, that any given individual passes so long a time with us, but only 

 that the species occupies such a diverse breeding range that the impelling causes 

 of evacuation are correspondingly diverse in form, and asynchronous in action. 



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